BETRAYED

01.11.10

Former Clinton Staffers Tell All

Gerald Herbert / AP Photo

The new tell-all Washington book
Game Change paints a highly unflattering portrait of Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, but the once-fearsome Clinton camp has yet to counterattack, Politico reports, mainly because the secretary of State’s former staffers gave the book its fodder. Clinton loyalists “acknowledge” that the book’s sources are Clinton’s own “former staffers and intimates.” That makes it tricky for the Clinton camp to rebut the story, but the silence also marks “the sputtering end of what was once known as the Clinton political machine.” The book portrays Clinton as “scheming, profane, sometimes paranoid, often tone-deaf,” Politico reports, and the authors say Clinton favored some of the nastiest campaign tactics, such as portraying President Obama as a drug dealer.